Texas Congressman Sues to Block Texas Voter ID Law

A Democratic congressman joined seven others Wednesday in filing a federal lawsuit to keep Texas from enforcing its voter ID law.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth filed the papers in Corpus Christi federal court, calling the requirement to show a state-issued photo ID card at the ballot box unconstitutional.

The law “would have the effect of denying thousands of Texas voters the ability to vote in person, a large number of whom would be disenfranchised entirely since absentee voting in Texas is available to only certain specified categories of voters,” according to the lawsuit.

The case comes just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court declared a section of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. That decision overthrew a decision by federal judges in Washington that Texas could not enforce the voter ID law.

The Washington court had determined that the voter ID law was an example of “intentional discrimination” against minorities, and used its authority under the Voting Rights Act to stop its enforcement. But when the Supreme Court ruled the act wrongfully singled out Texas and other southern state for such preclearance, the court lost jurisdiction.

-Texas driver license issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
-Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS
-Texas personal identification card issued by DPS
-Texas concealed handgun license issued by DPS
-United States military identification card containing the person’s photograph
-United States citizenship certificate containing the person’s photograph
-United States passport
-With the exception of the U.S. citizenship certificate, the identification must be current or have expired no more than 60 days before being presented at the polling place.

If can’t afford to attain one of these forms of ID, you can’t vote. And guess who won’t be able to afford an ID? I assure you, it isn’t wealthy white people.

This is logic, I am dealing when discussing this matter with my very conservative, yet misguided friend why trying to tell him that there is a reason as to why certain states needed pre-clearance

“plz they make you jump thru soo many hoops it is very expensive for a state and bottom line is all congress has to do is update that part but yet they are screaming for nothing just update it that is what the court said”

All he does is deflect, deny facts, and parrot Fox Talking Points, I know there is no hope in getting him to see the light, I just get a kick of showing him what a dumbass he can be from time to time…lol.

muselet

From the link:

In a statement Wednesday, [Texas Attorney General Greg] Abbott said the Supreme Court has already ruled that voter ID laws are constitutional and the Tuesday ruling cleared the way for Texas to enforce its law.

It will be interesting to see how the courts treat this lawsuit. On the one hand, Greg Abbott is correct that the Supremes have said voter ID laws are constitutional in principle. On the other hand, the specific implementation of a voter ID law can make it unconstitutional in practice.

“There is no valid reason to overturn Texas’ Voter ID law. The partisans who’s oppose the law were unable to produce a single witness who would be prevented from voting once the Voter ID law takes effect,” he said.

The people opposing the voter ID law are partisans. Uh-huh. Say it with me now: It’s Always Projection.

Also, opponents couldn’t point to any specific individual who would be prevented from voting and therefore the law should go into effect; proponents, on the other hand, couldn’t point to a single incident of voter fraud that could have been prevented by a voter ID law and therefore the law is absolutely necessary. Righties don’t do logic very well, do they?

–alopecia

trgahan

Nope, no logic there…I remember when President Clinton called for a national ID to be created and made available (free of charge) to all citizens. Suddenly, Republicans found the freedom to remain anonymous sacred second only to an unregulated domestic gun market.
Think of all the voter fraud that would have been averted had we all had national ID’s….

muselet

Absolutely. Those zeroes add up, you know.

–alopecia

blackdaug

I am sure this has been pointed out elsewhere, but Tejas and other states with republican super majorities over the last few years, wouldn’t be able to issue voter ID’s to the citizens if it had to.
They have slashed their dept. of public safety budgets to the bone, so the offices that used to issue drivers licenses in each county, have been closing all over the state.
There will be instances in more rural areas, where citizens will have to drive hundreds of miles to get an ID, because they will not increase funding to re-open those offices, and there is now no law to stop them from doing this anymore.

Christopher Foxx

You’ve described their plan perfectly.

eljefejeff

This is horrible, no doubt, and will lower the democratic party turnout. However, I have hope that anyone without any of those forms of ID will actually go out of their way to get them. Even when I was a poor starving college student, I know I still would have. This is their only way to fight back and give a big middle finger to the republicans.

Erika Frensley

I plan to help folks get the IDs (including paying for the subsidiary documentation if necessary). Not only will it help with voting, it will help in the rest of their life.

Draxiar

Thank you Texas Democrats for not rolling over on this. Dems in other states with Voter ID laws in process need to follow this lead. Should the laws pop up in other states, take the fight there too. Fight the fuck back! What’s more, do it honestly…not by cheating like the Republicans.

renee

With this lawsuit pending, does that mean that the new law gets suspended until lawsuit is concluded? I hope so, especially since Texas Repubs gerrymandered districts recently

muselet

The plaintiffs have asked for implementation to be blocked until the case is decided, but that depends on the court.

–alopecia

Follow and Like Us:

Support the Blog & Independent Media!

Click the PayPal button below to contribute to our daily efforts here:
Thanks so much helping to make all of this possible.